America’s greatest songwriter allows the public a glimpse behind the curtain once again this week as Tell Tale Signs, the 8th volume of Bob Dylan’s ongoing Bootleg Series, hits stores. Judging from this collection of songs, the last two decades have seen Bob gracefully aging, yet playful and crazy in love.
Unlike Dylan’s work in the 60s and 70s, very little of his studio outtakes since the late 80s has leaked, making this a genuine peek into the goldmine for everybody, even the hard-core Dylanologists. Likewise, everybody should be pleased with what they hear.
Tell Tale Signs is an album of mountains and rivers, music that can’t be qualified as anything but American; sentiments run from tender to vicious. And Dylan consistently surrounds himself with such amazing musicians that the album just SOUNDS good.
The set is chock full of separate but equal versions of previously released tunes; Bob has an unshakable belief in his words, regardless of musical context. On the deluxe version of Tell Tale Signs, for example, there are not one but THREE more unique and individual versions of the great Mississippi from Dylan’s 2001 album, “Love And Theft.”
It might take multiple listens to squeeze out delicious little lines like Huck’s Tune’s “All the merry little elves, can go hang themselves, my faith is as cold as can be” or Red River Shore’s “Well I’m wearing the cloak of misery and I’ve tasted jilted love, and the frozen smile upon my face fits me like a glove.” And that’s part of the fun.
The sum of this set’s reveal is the way that it fills out and enriches the human qualities of Bob’s tightly controlled output from 1989 through 2006. The real tale that is told is the way that the artist’s music has remained so deep and rich in that period of time.
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